Following on from the plans announced by Andrew Stunnell that the new Coalition will be building more affordable and socially rented houses than the previous Labour government there is now more good news on addressing the scandal of empty homes. In Bath and North East Somerset there are a significant number of empty properties that should be brought back to housing families.
Consultation document is at www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingsupply/newhomesbonus which contains ideas of the proposals and the encouragement to local councils to build new homes and also to bring unused homes back into occupation.
Nov 21 to 27 is the national empty homes week – please nominate house that are empty and could be used to house families to your Council.
Press release from Homes from empty houses
Friday 12th November 2010
For immediate release
Welcome for proposals to encourage councils to act on empty homes
The Charity Empty Homes welcomes government proposals, published today, to offer councils rewards for bringing empty homes back into use. It also welcomes the proposal that long-term empty homes brought into use should count as additional housing supply in the same way as newly built homes.
Empty Homes Chief Executive David Ireland said “It is bizarre that the current system completely ignores homes created by bringing abandoned properties back into use. The people who move into refurbished homes know that new housing has been created, but the current system says no. This matters because councils make strategic decisions on this basis. Many times homes have been left empty because the council could only claim credit or rewards for new housing by getting more homes built instead.”
He continued “These very welcome proposals would allow local authorities to see how empty property can be turned into new homes more clearly and give them the incentive to act.”
NotesThe proposals are published today in the government’s New Homes Bonus consultation paper page 18 http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/1767788.pdf
National Empty Homes week runs from 21st to 27th November. Empty Homes will be calling on the public to nominate homes it wants to see brought back into use. Further details will be published on 15th November
Further information on Empty Homes campaigns can be found here http://www.emptyhomes.com/whatwedo/our_campaigns.html For enquiries please contact: Shashi Ioannides: 020 7022 1865 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 020 7022 1865
[…] November 12 Paul Crossley | Homes for people //default pop-under house ad url infinityads_enable_pop = true; infinityads_frequencyCap =0; durl = ”; infinityads_layer_border_color = ”; infinityads_layer_ad_bg = ”; infinityads_layer_ad_link_color = ”; infinityads_layer_ad_text_color = ”; infinityads_text_link_bg = ”; infinityads_text_link_color = ”; infinityads_enable_text_link = true; online marketing Posted on November 12th, 2010 at 11:02 AM by admin Category: homes The Charity Empty Homes welcomes government proposals, published today, to offer councils rewards for bringing empty homes back into use. It also welcomes the proposal that long-term empty homes brought into use should count as …Go to Source […]